CPI schedules hearing on Yankees ticket scandal

The Commission on Public Integrity has scheduled a public hearing at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at its offices in downtown Albany into the Yankees tickets mess involving Gov. David Paterson and his troublesome aide David Johnson.

In early March, the CPI released a notice of reasonable cause that concluded Paterson had testified falsely under oath about the effort to obtain the World Series tickets and an alleged subsequent effort to paper it over with a backdated check. Paterson responded by saying the commission was being unfair.

A spokesman for Paterson’s personal attorney, Ted Wells, was not immediately available for comment. If Paterson and/or his legal team fail to show up, the hearing will likely serve as a restatement of the CPI’s case. The commission’s spokesman, Walter Ayres, said it had been in contact with Wells’ office.

The governor has had a contentious relationship with the CPI since May 2009, when Inspector General Joseph Fisch lambasted then-chair Herb Teitelbaum for leaking information about the CPI’s investigation of the travel records scandal to members of the Spitzer administration. Teitelbaum stepped down, but Paterson had less luck in forcing the resignations of the other members of the panel. Darren Dopp, a former Spitzer spokesman embroiled in the travel records scandal, gave the CPI the no-show treatment when his hearing was scheduled; he recently paid a fine related to its charges that he violated Public Officers Law.

The Yankees mess was one of two matters taken up by former Chief Judge Judith Kaye at the request of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Kaye’s report into the first scandal — the conduct of the governor and others related to a domestic violence charge brought against Johnson — was released three weeks ago. Johnson was booked today on misdemeanor assault charges related to the incident involving his ex-girlfriend Sherr-Una Booker.

Here’s the CPI’s letter to Paterson, which was sent on July 22 and posted today to the CPI’s website; the commission’s regulations require the letter be posted publicly five days before a hearing takes place.